We Want Media

When I began my TV reporting class (The Beat: NYC TV) last semester, one of the first lessons that our professors grilled into our heads was to always strive for objectivity (even though it isn’t necessarily attainable), and to keep our opinions or conclusions out of our stories. I took this to heart, especially since I had heard it so many times before.

I few days ago, I was listening to an old interview on the show On the Media, produced of course by NPR/WNYC (I heart NPR/WNYC) which got me thinking about opinions and journalists. The title of the interview was Borderline Journalism . The interviewer, Bob Garfield, essentially grilled CNN host, Lou Dobbs on his questionable journalistic techniques. Lou Dobbs has a point of view and he is not afraid to speak his mind. One cannot just single out Lou Dobbs, after all Fox host, Bill O’Reilly, seems to have trademarked the art of opinionated journalism.

Of course there are editorial pages in newspapers, but this particular broadcast style of opinionated journalism just seems wrong. The audience all too often takes the remarks of these hosts as facts. Journalism should be objective. Journalism should not be one-sided. If one is reporting a story without objectivity or balance then it is not journalism.